The
Loss of the Thresher
In August 1963, the research vessel USS Trieste recovered the segment
of brass pipe shown in this photograph from the mid-Atlantic wreck of
the USS Thresher (SSN-593). She had sunk on 10 April 1963 in 8,400
feet (2,600 m) of water with the loss of 129 lives. The apparent cause,
never proven, began with a leak in seawater piping that escalated into
a failure of the air-ballast system and an uncontrolled dive. The Thresher
was the first of two U.S. nuclear-powered submarines lost at sea. The
second was the USS Scorpion (SSN-589), lost at sea in May 1968.
Although propulsion system malfunction has been ruled out, the cause of
neither has been determined. Courtesy U.S. Naval Institute